President's Desk 11-03-13

From the President's Desk

Good Afternoon Fellow Rotarians and Friends of the e-Club,

It has been an awesome week!   Our Tuesday Night Forum was definitely a highlight with our two new Members:  Kaye in Brisbane and Ray in North Carolina being inducted via our 'GoToMeeting' software. We had so many wonderful people beaming in on this awesome occasion that it became a logistical nightmare for me as I was the 'technical organiser'. With 41 people from all over The World it was a massive achievement in organisation and a huge, "Thank you" should go to Secretary Chris Lloyd for that as well as thank you to everyone else for making it a night to remember.

For those of you who have no idea what our Forum looks like and how our e-Club holds a meeting, here are a few photos. On the large screen in 'The Shed' we can have up to six video displays and another 20 connections audio only, so I scrolled through turning on and off the different video feeds to give everyone a chance. As you can see it was pizza night (Thank you Ian and Heather) at 'The Shed' and we encourage other clusters to get together for a meal and then log-in and listen to our great Guest Speakers.

Last week's Speaker was Rhys Wachter an e-Club Member who went and experienced the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) camp at Tyalgum. As everyone who sticks out the week (and yes some can't hack it) say, it has changed them and now they have many friends that will last a lifetime. For each the insight they get is unique and personal , they come out the other side enthusiastic and ready to face anything put in front of them. Rhys' PowerPoint gave us a little look into the amazing seminar called RYLA.

Kristen & I also got the chance to help out with many Rotarians from all over the District at Bulls on the Beach rodeo. The weather wasn't as kind as I would have liked but a good night was still had by all. Ash McDonald Rebounder from Sweden pitched in and helped running the food between the tents. As you can see by the photos it got a bit steamy in the BBQ tent but I think it all run pretty smoothly. Kristen was one of the smiling faces at the front gate and by the end of the night had transformed herself with the help of the face painting fairy.

This week's Forum Guest Speaker is Zanon Pforr speaking about Youth Radio Training Centre (YRTC), this was one of our Clubs projects while I was President at Hope Island 2011-2012. See you there, Tuesday 8pm Qld time.

Yours in Rotary,
Rick Jewson 
President